The use of ball valves is well known in many industries. What has not been known is how to accurately obtain readings of the flow-rate of a fluid passing through an on-off valve and in particular an on-off valve such as a ball valve. To determine accurate flow-rate information, instruments outside an on-off valve have been implemented, however, such implementations require complex connections which connections restrict the utility of the valve. Additionally, such prior art solutions for the reacting of flow-rate information present the inconvenience that the reading of the flow-rate information for each single valve is entrusted to a dedicated means of measurement. The dedicated means of measurement used with an on-off valve is dependent on the fluid which passes through the valve, specifically with regard to the type of fluid passing through the valve, and the quantity of fluid passing through the valve.
Other methods for the reading flow-rate inside an on-off valve have been proposed, such as for example the solution anticipated in the European Patent, Serial No. EP 0671578. In such a situation, however, an alteration of the actual flow-rate occurs as a result of the physical structure of the flow-rate measurement equipment. Consequently, the flow-rate reading itself is oftentimes inaccurate.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art for an improvement of the ability of an on-off valve, such as a ball valve, to obtain an accurate reading of flow-rate.